SharePlex from Quest Software is a data replication software offering near real-time replication and supporting a wide variety of databases.QuestSharePlex should be at the top of your list for replication software2018-03-14T21:36:10.687ZWe've used SharePlex in two capacities. Its primary use is to provide heterogenous replication of production data into auxiliary systems (data marts, data lakes, BI, analytics). That has been an ongoing use for several years. We initially used it for Oracle -&gt; Oracle replication only but have since extended its reach to utilize newer features that allow replication to SQL Server and JSON targets.
Our secondary use of Shareplex was to facilitate a major, complex database migration. It enabled us to migrate to new servers, new storage, update the OS, upgrade the database version, and apply critical patches with little (literally a few seconds) of downtime. We were able to run the old and new systems side by side and compare performance prior to the migration. It also allowed us to provide fail-back capability in the event of an issue, without data loss.,Speed. We see little to no delay in replication streams between source and target databases.
Tuning and options: There are a myriad of options available for tuning and customizing replication streams.
Support: I've been consistently pleased with the support we've received from Quest. They're prompt and knowledgable and solve issues quickly and without drama.,Documentation: There are some areas where the documentation is weak or dated. In particular, running SharePlex on RAC is a more involved process than the implementation guides would have you believe. When reaching out for assistance, the answer from Dell (a few years ago) was to engage their consulting team.
Built in scripts/agents: SharePlex comes with a handful of monitoring and management scripts that can be run as cron jobs. Unfortunately, these scripts are primitive and rigid, requiring the user to hard-code values into the script body and limiting their usefulness when you're running multiple replication streams. Some of the methods and dependencies are heavy. We ended up writing custom scripts that do what we need but it would be helpful if there were greater functionality and flexibility out of the box.
Compared to other tools, there is not as wide (or at least as active) a user presence. If you're having difficulties you may have to engage a consultant since it's less likely that you'll find an answer in a forum or blog post.,9,SharePlex allowed us to relieve the load on our production databases by migrating batch and analytic processes to dedicated resources.
SharePlex performed admirably during a migration and upgrade of our production databases, allowing us to accomplish ambitious goals without endangering availability of critical systems.
Quest is regularly adding value to the product with enhancements and new features.,Oracle GoldenGateSean ScottShareplex for Oracle - It just works!2016-06-17T19:49:00.974ZWe use Shareplex to provide a reporting database thus reducing load for our OLTP instances. We also use it for distributing data to other database instances.,It is a light weight service that is easily configured and changed with the use of simple text files that define source tables and target tables. You have complete control of adding or removing tables to the configuration without interfering with other already configured tables.
It comes complete with utilities to synchronize data and to repair the data should it ever get out of synchronization. It also comes with an independent monitoring system that alerts admins should any errors occur.
Technical support is excellent. The support team is very responsive to issues. When there is an issue one of the engineers will take ownership of the problem and follow through until a solution is provided.
It is versatile for maintenance. The admin has control over each of the services used to replicate data. Any of the services can be stopped and restarted throughout the replication process to allow for maintenance or troubleshooting of the replication process. There are a multitude of parameter options available for controlling behavior of the replication process.,When first introduced the Change Data Capture process was awkward. Each subsequent release has improved the process.
Sometimes the Shareplex monitoring service in Foglight gets overly aggressive in sending out error notifications and can end up spamming the admins with email alerts for one problem. We have had to tone that down.,10,Shareplex allows us to have a near real-time reporting database and we have been able to improve our reporting capabilities eliminating the negative impact on our OLTP systems.,Oracle GoldenGate,Oracle Enterprise Manager, Oracle Database, Toad for Oracle, SQL Developer,,3,Data Warehouse loads
Data sharing
Great potential for use in migrations and/or upgrades. It allows builds of the new instance while still running on the legacy instance.,We have eliminated performance problems and the negative caveats of using Oracle Database links.
We are able to replicate certain types of real production type activity to our DEV and QA environments.,DB upgrades/migrations,10,Yes,Price
Product Features
Product Usability
Product Reputation
Positive Sales Experience with the Vendor,Other solutions have since been developed. I would include looking at them.,10,Yes,We were an early adopter of their Change Tracking capability. We discovered several bugs. Support started supplying me with patches within 24 hours. They were really awesome.Joel BarrowSharePlex - the solution for a robust and reliable data replication pipeline2015-12-02T16:56:54.558ZShareplex is used to replicate data of internet access logs and redirect logs from the point of entry (transaction) to the very end of the back office (data warehouse) for business analytics. It provides data transfer pipelines that move and combine data from geographically dispersed sources to common targets, setting the foundation for a centralized and robust ETL process.,SharePlex is highly configurable and versatile. It can handle virtually any kind of data replication needs.
SharePlex is very robust. Its message queuing mechanism provides fast data transfer from the source to the target.
SharePlex software is very stable and mature, and it is highly scalable and reliable.
SharePlex support is exceptionally good. We are very satisfied with its support engineers.,SharePlex could have provided more detailed documentation and examples for its "qview" utility. It is the tool of choice in many cases when we encounter tough issues.,9,Faster data ETL process, which in turn speeds up business analysis and decision making.
Fault-tolerance: when some replicated databases go down, others can stay up with the same data replicated by SharePlex.
Higher capacity when business ramps up.,Oracle GoldenGate,Oracle Database, DataStax, Cloudera Manager,No,9Robert XuShareplex is good for some cases2015-12-11T20:06:44.274ZWe use it to replicate the database,Replicate data for Dev/QA
Easy setup/upgrade
Support is easily reachable,Lost data, out of sync
Re-sync is very hard for large tables
Doesn't support all Oracle commands, like rename table a to b,4,Postive: easy to replicate data for non-prod use
Negative: we spent a lot time due to data out of sync,Oracle Database,Oracle DatabaseGeorge Fu

We've used SharePlex in two capacities. Its primary use is to provide heterogenous replication of production data into auxiliary systems (data marts, data lakes, BI, analytics). That has been an ongoing use for several years. We initially used it for Oracle -> Oracle replication only but have since extended its reach to utilize newer features that allow replication to SQL Server and JSON targets.

Our secondary use of Shareplex was to facilitate a major, complex database migration. It enabled us to migrate to new servers, new storage, update the OS, upgrade the database version, and apply critical patches with little (literally a few seconds) of downtime. We were able to run the old and new systems side by side and compare performance prior to the migration. It also allowed us to provide fail-back capability in the event of an issue, without data loss.

Documentation: There are some areas where the documentation is weak or dated. In particular, running SharePlex on RAC is a more involved process than the implementation guides would have you believe. When reaching out for assistance, the answer from Dell (a few years ago) was to engage their consulting team.

Built in scripts/agents: SharePlex comes with a handful of monitoring and management scripts that can be run as cron jobs. Unfortunately, these scripts are primitive and rigid, requiring the user to hard-code values into the script body and limiting their usefulness when you're running multiple replication streams. Some of the methods and dependencies are heavy. We ended up writing custom scripts that do what we need but it would be helpful if there were greater functionality and flexibility out of the box.

Compared to other tools, there is not as wide (or at least as active) a user presence. If you're having difficulties you may have to engage a consultant since it's less likely that you'll find an answer in a forum or blog post.

SharePlex really shines when set alongside GoldenGate. The licensing costs of the two products would appear to place them in entirely different ballparks yet they perform nearly identically in practice.

SharePlex is suitable for heterogenous replication of one database to another. The list of targets is ever increasing, with support for all major RDBMS vendors as well as support for popular NoSQL and JSON replication.

SharePlex is effective when replicating from on-premise to cloud. Whether that's migrating data, creating a high-availability presence in a public or private cloud, or populating a data mart, it does the job quite well.

It is a light weight service that is easily configured and changed with the use of simple text files that define source tables and target tables. You have complete control of adding or removing tables to the configuration without interfering with other already configured tables.

It comes complete with utilities to synchronize data and to repair the data should it ever get out of synchronization. It also comes with an independent monitoring system that alerts admins should any errors occur.

Technical support is excellent. The support team is very responsive to issues. When there is an issue one of the engineers will take ownership of the problem and follow through until a solution is provided.

It is versatile for maintenance. The admin has control over each of the services used to replicate data. Any of the services can be stopped and restarted throughout the replication process to allow for maintenance or troubleshooting of the replication process. There are a multitude of parameter options available for controlling behavior of the replication process.

When first introduced the Change Data Capture process was awkward. Each subsequent release has improved the process.

Sometimes the Shareplex monitoring service in Foglight gets overly aggressive in sending out error notifications and can end up spamming the admins with email alerts for one problem. We have had to tone that down.

It works best in Oracle to Oracle instances. Replication to other database vendors is improving with each release, but doesn't have the compare/repair utility that exists in Oracle to Oracle replication.

Shareplex is used to replicate data of internet access logs and redirect logs from the point of entry (transaction) to the very end of the back office (data warehouse) for business analytics. It provides data transfer pipelines that move and combine data from geographically dispersed sources to common targets, setting the foundation for a centralized and robust ETL process.

SharePlex is best suited for replicating relatively small but steady streams of data, instead of huge amounts of data surge. Keep in mind that it relies on database logs (redo logs in Oracle) to replicate data in the form of "messages", and therefore it is mandatory to put the database in forced logging mode - that may be a prohibiting factor in some situations.